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Let’s make it short : GeekDad Michael Harrison didn’t likeMansions of Madness. I did.

If you haven’t heard about it, Mansions of Madness is the newest board game by Fantasy Flight Games. It’s a mix between Arkham Horror (for the Cthulhu-verse and the Investigators characters) and Descent (for the modular tile map-building and the Keeper’s role in putting obstacles on the way of the other players) but adds a lot more.

Mansions of Madness is a semi-cooperative board game meant for two to five players, one of whom being the Keeper. The other players are Investigators exploring an area and trying to stop some evil plot (and to survive). It’s set in the world of The Call of Cthulhu RPG, inspired by H.P. Lovecraft‘s stories.

Here’s a few of the game’s qualities:

Image : Fantasy Flight Games

1. The art is beautiful and really contributes to the game’s ambiance.
Almost everyone agrees about the beautiful material provided in the box. The map tiles are especially beautiful, deliciously gloomy, perfect to create a Lovecraftian atmosphere. From Nursery to Master’s Bedroom, from the great stairs of the Foyer to the Graveyard’s stones, they offer very diverse settings for the game’s horror stories. And the monster miniatures are a lot of fun, of course.

2. The game offers real scenarios and many storytelling elements.
If you’ve ever played Descent (a good and funny game anyway), you know that the “scenarios” are mainly pretence, only useful for the map and monsters they provide. MoM’s scenarios are closer to actual RPG scenarios. Prologues read aloud to players are well written and successfully create the ambiance to enter a Lovecraftian tale. When reading his/her part, the Keeper is asked to make a few choices that will lead to different stories. That is of course a way to increase re-playability, as the same scenario will then have various settings and various endings, but that’s also a way to create different atmospheres, depending of the type of horror stories you want to tell. Are the evil forces controlled by some Shoggoth inadvertently invoked? Or are they mostly human, revealing the darkest parts of men’s hearts?

The variety in the winning conditions (for both Keeper and Investigators) is also very interesting and very Lovecraftian — which means very different from most games. The fact that Investigators don’t know how to win at the beginning of a game makes sense: you never know the Villain’s plan (or the depth of the Horror) before gathering the clues. Sometimes, the only possible victory for the Investigators will be to escape with the horrible knowledge they uncovered and to testify in front of the world. How many games offer such winning conditions?

3. The game offers many elements of surprise. That’s probably its greatest and rarest quality.
Let’s take an example: the spells. As in Arkham Horror, Investigators may be able to cast spells. But when they receive a Spell card, they aren’t allowed to look at its back side (listing the precise effects of a passed or failed spell) before actually casting it. So what? you say, the surprise will only last until each spell is cast once. That’s where the game is clever: each Spell comes in five variations, and the player draws a new one each time he casts one. So an Investigator never knows exactly what will happen when he chooses to cast a Spell. We’re in the Cthulhu universe: knowledge and magic are dangerous tools to play with.

The same principle is used for monsters: each monster miniature gets a monster token in its base. The Investigator players aren’t allowed to look at the back of the monsters before damaging them. Until then, they don’t know the monster’s special attack, nor the amount of its health points. That makes sense: when you first encounter an antagonist, how would you know such things ? And as for the Spells, each monster type comes with variations: not every Cultist has the same special attack (some are a lot of fun!) and, believe it or not, some Zombies are healthier than others. This way, you can never be sure of a monster’s abilities when you confront it.

But if you read other reviews of Mansions of Madness, you may have heard about some “major flaws” of the game.

Let’s summarize the complaints I read about :

Sometimes the Investigators are asked to decrypt puzzles before exploring further. Some reviewers thought the puzzles were too long, breaking the game’s rythm, and some of them were too darkly printed. We actually enjoyed the puzzles. That’s an original idea, and one of its purposes is to make use of the “Intellect” character attribute, often underused in games and RPGs as well. To solve puzzles, you are allowed as many moves per turn as your character’s Intellect. So both your own ability (in choosing the right moves) and your character’s are useful. If you see very clearly how to solve a Wiring Puzzle in four moves but you’re playing an Investigator with Intellect 3… well, he’s quite dumb, too bad for him, so you have to wait for another turn to finish it (or another Investigator). That’s adding suspense and good characterization. Oh, and about the arguably too-hard-to-read color codes of some puzzles? We were playing at night, in a room quite poorly lighted, and one of us color-blind ! We managed it. So please…

Many reviewers found the set-up too long. Well, it’s long, about twenty minutes. Mansions of Madness is clearly not a quick game you can improvise. It’s an immersive game, perfect for an evening with friends. Is that a problem? We didn’t think so. All gamers own different types of games for different situations.

The errata issue: yes, Mansions of Madness comes with a few errata. Most of them are wording problems which common sense and experience alone could have solved. It’s a complex game, and by complex I mean “involving many elements” rather than “difficult,” so I suppose the errata were unavoidable. Of course, everyone would have preferred a “perfect” game. But that’s no big deal, and never spoiled our gaming experience.

The game is “extremely linear” (GeekDad). It’s far less linear than any game except for (good) RPGs. Of course, Investigator players are prompted to go from room A to room G and so on, but most of time, they can’t achieve it linearly since the Keeper puts obstacles in their way. What’s more, the hints about which rooms to explore contribute to replayability, since they change according to the scenario’s options. What’s (even) more, they’re an element of suspense since they’re associated with a countdown. Predetermined Events will bring the story to its (dark) end if the Investigators are too slow. Without the hints contained in the Clues they discover, they would risk wandering randomly and would always lose the game. “We shall reach in the Crypt before the ceremony’s over!” is far better to play than “We shall probably do something somewhere before the ceremony’s over!”

Image : Fantasy Flight Games

In the end, the only flaws I completely agree with are the ones listed in the wonderfully extensive and precise review on Boardgame Geek, mostly these:

*Minimal supplied scenarios with the foreknowledge that none will be forthcoming for “free” making replayability an issue.

*Certain elements seem limited to be saved for inevitable expansions. Expansions are not bad at all, but when a game is released and feels light in some areas because things are intentionally held back for expansions, then it is a problem.

Plus one detail: the secret explanation of the plot is often known only by the Keeper (from his/her chosen answers to the scenario’s questions). If the Keepers plays his/her game well, the Investigators may guess his/her Objective but not the complete story. The Clue Cards may be more explicit about it. Or one could add Clue Cards to that purpose only.

So, who will like Mansions of Madness? Many people among you, I think, such as :

People who’re not afraid to read long rules. (At least one of you needs to do that: the rules take a long time to read but not to understand nor to explain to the other players. If you’re reading this blog, I’m quite confident at least one person in your players’ team is geek enough to read and assimilate long rules. I suggest the one reading the rules be the Keeper for your first game. You’ll be able to switch roles quite easily for the following games. That’s what we did. Oh, and I’m the one reading the rules.)

Experienced players : I’m not sure MoM would be appreciated by complete beginners in boardgames/RPGs.

People who appreciate some suspense in a game

Mansions of Madness is designed by Corey Konieczka and published by Fantasy Flight Games. You’ll find it on Amazon at less than $60. Recommended age: 13 years and up according to the publisher, and I agree; younger players wouldn’t appreciate the game and may find it too dark.

Spending so much time with my kids, I love activities and games that we can play together where we’re on an even footing, or will at least all enjoy equally. After reading Jonathan Liu’s review of Pajaggle over at GeekDad, I knew I had found something special. (Of course, I tend to like about 90% of what Jonathan likes, so that was also an indicator.)

Photo: Pajaggle

The idea behind Pajaggle is that it is both a game and a puzzle. The board and pieces are made of high quality plastic, and each piece only fits in one spot on the board. Many of the pieces look very similar, but are only slightly different. Also, some are double pieces, fitting one inside the other, which can trick you.

When you think of plastic, you usually think of the cheap-o plastic that toys are made of, the same toys that used to be made of wood 25 to 30 years ago and more. But Pajaggle pieces are a joy to hold. They feel cool and nice in your hands. The visual and tactile experience you get is pleasing in a way that you don’t get with most toys these days.

Photo: Pajaggle

The Pajaggle people hit the nail on the head with the description of the game/puzzle as “fun, curiously addictive, inclusive, and challenging.” We found all of those to be true. You find yourself wanting to go back and putting them together, again and again. The more you play, the more you want to play. And since you can play by yourself or with a group of people, playing Pajaggle is always an option.

There is no learning curve with Pajaggle. Sit anyone (age 3 and up), from anywhere, speaking any language, in front of a board with a pile of pieces and they’ll know what to do. As you play, you’ll learn the many different kinds of pieces, and how a few of them are almost identical, but not quite. This memory will serve you well the next time you play, hopefully giving you a jump on your competition, if you’re playing against someone.

Photo: Pajaggle

Despite the many pieces to Pajaggle, it is very portable because each board comes with a little black pouch to hold the pieces (they don’t really stay in the board when it’s flipped over) and a drawstring backpack to hold everything together. Along with the pieces, pouch, board, and backpack, you also get a timer and a white, weighty, microfiber “throw” which is for putting the pieces on when you’re playing so they don’t slide around the table. You also get some directions to play a variety of games by yourself and with others, but we found that the more we play, the more games of our own we think up.

Like with most puzzles, the more often you do these puzzles the easier they are. You get to know what pieces there are, how many of each type and what size, which little ones are the inner pieces, etc. So after a while, it is nice to have more than one board, which adds to the fun.

When we first got the Pajaggle boards, we played with them as straight puzzles for a while. Then recently, we finally tried some games. We played what I thought was a game I made up, but it turns out the Pajaggle people thought of it first, calling it Hand Wars. To play, you use one board and two sets of pieces. Each player tries to get as many of their pieces in the board as possible. The winner has the most of their color in. I won this, playing against a team of both of my kids.

We also played a game that doesn’t match up with any of the included suggestions. Take two boards, one for each person or team, and mix up all the pieces in the middle. Take pieces of either color to fill your board. The first to fill your board wins. The kids’ team won this one.

Pajaggle also makes Pajaggle Sport, which is made of high-density foam with much larger pieces. It is played on the ground and is great for large groups of kids and/or adults. The games that are played with Pajaggle Sport are physical, really getting everyone moving.

Note: I was given a discount on the Pajaggle boards for this review, but I did pay for them.